What is it about?
Does a teacher need to be authentic? The concept of authenticity has been discussed for decades, but what it actually means to be authentic as a teacher seldom progresses past the realm of philosophy. To get a better grip on this concept we asked students in secondary education what – in their eyes – an authentic teacher is. Based on their responses, we distilled four criteria. Teachers are perceived as authentic when they know what they are talking about and can translate subject matter to the students’ knowledge level (expertise). Second, authentic teachers are passionate about what they teach (passion). Third, authentic teachers give students the feeling that each student and each class is different (uniqueness). Finally, authentic teachers aren’t friends with their students, but have an interest in them (distance).
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Why is it important?
By describing these student perceptions, this study helps us to understand and build better relations between students and teachers.
Perspectives
This is a seminal study for me as it's the starting point of my PhD. The next couple of months follow-up studies will be published. By changing the focus from 'authenticity' to 'perceived authenticity' we were possible to make a difficult concept more practical.
Mr Pedro De Bruyckere
Universiteit Utrecht
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Authentic teachers: Student criteria perceiving authenticity of teachers, Cogent Education, October 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/2331186x.2016.1247609.
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